Bertha Cushing Child

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Bertha Cushing Child, from a 1903 concert program.
Bertha Cushing Child, from a 1908 publication.

Bertha May Cushing Child (September 11, 1871 – February 9, 1933) was an American singer and clubwoman, based in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the mother of diplomat Paul Cushing Child.

Early life

Bertha May Cushing was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the daughter of a Methodist minister, John Russell Cushing, and his wife, Mary Hebard Cushing. Her great-uncle was diplomat Caleb Cushing. She attended Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and studied voice with Clara Munger in Boston, with further vocal training in Paris.[1][2]

Career

Bertha May Cushing was noted as a "true contralto"[2] concert singer in Boston.[3] Child's voice was described as "luscious" by a New York critic.[4] She gave recitals, sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was a soloist in the King's Chapel Choir. She also sang at Synagogue Ardath Israel in Boston, and with the city's Handel and Haydn Society, Cecilia Society, and Browning Society.[5] She was a soloist at the White House in a 1917 concert for President Woodrow Wilson.[6] She also taught singing, and gave musical performances with her children, billed as "Mrs. Child and the Children".[7]

She performed at a benefit concert for the Eudowood Consumption Hospital Fund in Baltimore in 1908,[8] and at a Boston concert raising funds for war relief causes in 1916.[9] Child was a charter member of the Professional Woman's Club,[10] and was a member of the Equal Suffrage Association, the Woman's City Club, and the Copley Society.[1]

Personal life

In 1899 Bertha Cushing married Charles Tripler Child, an electrical engineer who worked for the Smithsonian Institution. She was widowed with three very young children when Charles died suddenly in 1902.[11] Son Paul Cushing Child (1902-1994) became a diplomat, and in 1946 the husband of chef Julia Child.[12][13]

Bertha Cushing Child followed the teachings of Theosophy and was a vegetarian.[14] She died from meningitis or a heart attack in 1933, aged 61 years, in Paris.[15][1] She is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child Dies in Paris" Boston Globe (February 9, 1933): 5. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  2. ^ a b "Great Contralto Will Sing at Wednesday Club's Festival" The Times (April 6, 1902): 18. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  3. ^ "Our Illustrations" Photo-era Magazine (March 1909): 156.
  4. ^ "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child" The Times Dispatch (April 3, 1904): 6. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  5. ^ "Bertha Cushing Child, Contralto" Musical Courier (February 12, 1908): 35.
  6. ^ "Sings Before President" Musical America (January 20, 1917): 12.
  7. ^ Laura Shapiro, Julia Child (Penguin 2007): 13. ISBN 9780670038398
  8. ^ "Later Baltimore News" Musical Courier (April 15, 1908): 37.
  9. ^ "Two Boston Clubs Resume Concerts" Musical America (December 2, 1916): 42.
  10. ^ "Bertha Cushing Child" Marsh's Magazine (October 1908): 29.
  11. ^ "Mother Love Expressed in Song" Boston Globe (April 7, 1907): 55. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  12. ^ Alex Prud'homme, The French Chef in America (Random House, 2016), excerpted in Town and Country (October 20, 2016).
  13. ^ Papers of Julia Child, 1925-1993: A Finding Aid Archived 2018-07-03 at the Wayback Machine, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
  14. ^ Julia Child, My Life in France (Gerald Duckworth & Company 2009). ISBN 9780715639924
  15. ^ "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child" New York Times (February 10, 1933): 18. via ProQuest
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